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Temporada: Canberra's restaurant of the year 2014

Kirsten Lawson
Kirsten Lawson

Temporada is about quiet style, with a relaxed atmosphere and tasteful decor.
Temporada is about quiet style, with a relaxed atmosphere and tasteful decor.Supplied

The move towards top chefs cooking in more relaxed ways is one to be loudly applauded, and at Temporada you can almost feel Ben Willis and Chris Darragh breathing out. The result is the kind of spread we would all love to be able to produce at home, and would happily eat every day.

Temporada has taken its own path. It's modern dining that relies not a jot on the kind of pyrotechnics that characterise casual dining. This place about quiet style, with an understated good-looking set-up, gorgeous tiles on the floor, lovely lighting and a semi-circle of tables around a central bar with an emphasis on bar seating. The pleasure of eating here is that you don't need to get caught up in the occasion of a structured three-courser or exhausted by the craziness of a roaring hipster diner, despite the undoubted joys of both options.

Temporada is a relative newbie, opening its doors at the start of the year in Moore Street, off the central business district restaurant strip, but it has been right since day one largely through the confidence, experience and excellence of Willis and his former Aubergine chef, Darragh, who heads the kitchen. It is considerably less technical than Aubergine and much more simple in the kitchen, where the food is intensely focused around the charcoal grill.

The oysters are woodgrilled and well worth ordering.
The oysters are woodgrilled and well worth ordering.Graham Tidy
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The menu is not super-structured. Eating entree, main, dessert is not really the point. The starters are more bar food, such as little burgers, confusingly called rolls, filled with pig's head, mayo and kimchi – creamy, crunchy, all good –or beef rib, cucumber and horseradish. They are a great snack, but possibly not if you're en route to a few more courses.

Sardines on toast are lovely and salty, with semi-dried tomato and onion. If only this was lunch every day. Whether or not oysters are your thing, here is the place to order them – woodgrilled, and one from each of four locations, and test yourself on oyster terroir.

Octopus with watermelon is highly unusual, and we remain unconvinced about the watermelon, despite its obvious fresh contribution. The octopus, as with so much of the menu, has gained much from the char-grill, and has that subtle smoky flavour that pervades so much of the food. The raw kingfish is another menu highlight. No melting slivers of ethereal fish, these are fat slices, so meaty, so fresh and rich, in a big serving with avocado and radish, puffed millet and yuzu.

Nothing complicated, the food is a happy presentation of excellent, satisfying, generous components.
Nothing complicated, the food is a happy presentation of excellent, satisfying, generous components.Supplied

Veal tartare is a rugged dish of chopped, raw veal served with glazed sweetbreads and potato crisp. Lamb cutlets capture the style at Temporada – the char-grill and crowd-pleasing smoky flavours that pervade so much of the menu, and handling that makes the most of simple ingredients. The charry cutlets come with merguez sausage, plenty of lemony tzatziki, a really fine salad and pita. Nothing complicated, but a happy presentation on an array of plates, and excellent, satisfying, generous components. The asparagus is a triumph – big lengths of asparagus, char-grilled, and simply served with sauce gribiche, the boiled-egg and caper-style mayonnaise.

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In desserts, the wood-roasted fruit salad is uplifting, utterly delicious and seasonal, with sweet, grilled peaches, watermelon and pineapple, a green-herb granita and sour yuzu.

The feeling is casual, so there's nothing fancy in the service, but there's a good understanding of the menu.

The desserts at Temporada are uplifting, utterly delicious and seasonal.
The desserts at Temporada are uplifting, utterly delicious and seasonal.Andrew Meares

If you want to talk and experiment with wine and drinks – and who doesn't? – you are in great hands. The list is ever changing, up to date, eclectic and interesting. Sure, it drifts into the weirdness that is natural wine, but you're not flying without a safety net of a solid list. The by-the-glass list is dynamic and looks far beyond just our shores. Both the wine and food strike you as a sort of love-in of things they really like to eat and drink themselves.

Although the feeling is casual, there's clearly great experience behind Temporada. There's good reason why the same team runs the city's best places.

Temporada
15 Moore Street, Civic. 6249 6683. temporada.com.au
Owners Ben Willis and Chris Darragh; chef Chris Darragh.
Monday to Saturday noon-late.

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Kirsten LawsonKirsten Lawson is news director at The Canberra Times

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